Redesign: Enterprise Mentorship Platform

ROLE

Concept, Research, UX, UI, Testing

PLATFORMS

Desktop

INDUSTRY

Education

TOOLS

Figma

DURATION

6 weeks

Overview

I was tasked with a proof of concept for redesigning a virtual engagement space in an enterprise mentoring platform to utilise more modern social media design patterns. I had to navigate the tension between driving scale and increasing user engagement with the need to guide users towards more in-depth levels of conversation.

Responsible for

1. User research - understanding how people used the initial platform, their expectations and their experience

2. Competitive research - I analyzed social media competitors like Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin and product management tools such as Trello and Asana

3. Platform navigation - visualizing user flows in performing certain tasks

4. Wireframes - showcasing the new feature flow and how it integrates into the platform through low-, mid-, and high-fidelity wireframes.

5. Prototyping - created an interactive prototype for the main flow.‍

6. Usability testing - understanding how useful and easy it is to navigate the new platform and iterate based on feedback.

Project goals

Redesign the enterprise mentoring platform to incorporate modern social media design patterns that drive engagement across the platform's global spaces and learning engagements.

Problem

Key human problem

The old design led to low engagement rates within the virtual mentoring space. Its tabular design users to change context when performing basic micro-interactions, making it cumbersome for new participants to understand what had transpired and how they could participate from that point on. As a result, the users would either not engage at all or leave the platform.

Key business implication

Since the platform was designed for enterprise use, its low user engagement rates failed to justify the high costs of maintaining the enterprise model. Consequently, users often lacked the deeper engagement needed to enhance their competencies, putting the platform's ability to fulfill its core promise at risk.

Solution

Product design

Introduced a social media design block-type pattern so users could comment and reply at scale to a given topic within an overarching thread.

Introduced specialty types of blocks designed to serve different roles like task blocks, posts, event blocks, and file upload blocks.

Visual design

Completely overhauled the design to differentiate between the app-wide and engagement-level dashboard areas.

I improved user orientation by creating a clear navigation system that allows them to explore the global platform and the engagement spaces in which they are actively participating.

Created a component-like design pattern for each block to ensure a similar appearance with distinguishable elements for each block type.

Interaction design

Incorporated a thread system similar to Facebook, allowing users to comment and engage in a particular block at scale.

I've added a filtering system to allow new users to narrow their search to a specific type of engagement task.

Restructured the app-wide elements on the page to complement but not distract from the engagement-level elements.

Impact

60% boost completion efficiency

During the usability testing phase, users navigated the engagement learning space to manage existing tasks and communicate about a specific topic. They completed these tasks on the first attempt.

95% task completion rate

The overall task completion time improved from 139 seconds to 55 seconds after the redesign.

Increased brand trust

Qualitative feedback showcased that 100% of the users found the new platform design intuitive and trustworthy and expressed an active interest in using it for their professional growth.

Process highlights

1. Iterative design for a scalable, user-centered task block

Designing the task block was the most challenging aspect of this project, requiring multiple iterations to address scalability, user experience, and edge cases. Early designs lacked clarity and disrupted the user flow by redirecting users away from the main feed, while later iterations refined the block to display key information inline. Through feedback and careful consideration of user roles, I developed tailored modes with consistent layouts, aligning elements to reduce cognitive load and enhance usability.

For example, I ensured the task block remained prominently visible in the main feed for all relevant roles, including the task creator and the assignee. Additionally, I designed the system to allow tasks to be assigned to a large number of users (i.e. 50 people) while maintaining a clear and user-friendly interface, preventing any risk of overwhelming the user.

2. Designing a social media-inspired dashboard through visual design

To create a social media-inspired redesign, I drew inspiration from platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn for newsfeed structure and task management tools like Asana for efficient task block design. The visual design emphasized clean typography and balanced colors to prioritize content and user actions. Each content block—tasks, posts, file uploads, and events—was designed for quick recognition and to enhance user engagement as requested by the executive stakeholder.

3. Enhancing interaction design for scalability

The design needed to incorporate social media elements such as distinct content blocks, comments, and replies while also supporting a high volume of users actively engaging in conversations across the feed. To achieve this, the layout ensured that all discussions were easy to navigate, allowing anyone to seamlessly catch up and contribute to ongoing conversations at any time.

Interactive Prototype

Explore the final version of this project's interactive prototype below.

Conclusion

The project provided a unique opportunity to tackle the challenge of boosting user engagement while ensuring scalability and delivering a rich learning experience. It offered valuable insights into what users prioritize in skill development and social platforms, revealing how seamlessly integrating these elements can lead to a well-rounded and impactful learning experience.

The next steps for this project involve expanding the product’s capabilities, including enhancing the user account space, implementing multiple workflows for event creation, file upload and post creation, as well as developing a notification system to keep users informed of the latest updates.

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